20170123_ca_ottawa

EXCLUSIVE

VOICES OF THE POLICE

Some Ottawa officers skewed profiling data out of fear they’d be painted as racist metroNEWS

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MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2017

WE ARE THE RESISTANCE

But if you think this fight is romantic or glorious, think again — exhilarating as the women’s march was, the road ahead will be perilous Vicky Mochama in Washington, metroVIEWS ADAM KVETON / FOR METRO

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• Toronto: 60,000 • Washington: 500,000 • London: 100,000 • Sydney: 3,000 • New York City: 250,000 • Berlin: 1,000 • Los Angeles: 750,000 • Antarctica: 30 • Tally: Four million worldwide metroNEWS

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Ottawa Digest

health

Asbestos buildings a priority for feds

Weather

Dylan C. Robertson

For Metro | Ottawa As the federal government renovates its buildings across the National Capital Region, departments are compiling inventories of buildings they own that hold asbestos.

The vast majority of government-owned buildings in Ottawa and Gatineau are owned or leased

by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), which has published its own registry.

“The department is now leveraging its experience to take a leadership role in supporting other federal departments,” spokeswoman Me’shel Gulliver Bélanger wrote in an email.

On Sept. 23, 2016, departments and agencies were given 12 months to complete these public registries.

On Dec. 15, 2016, the government announced it was moving ahead with banning the use of asbestos across Canada by 2018.

Donna Ziegler, director of cancer control for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Saskatchewan division, hailed the government for including both owned and leased buildings, unlike her province’s government.

“If you don’t have all of them on board, it’s a mishmash of what’s public and what’s not,” she said. “We know the majority, almost all of our buildings are older than 30 years, so most would contain asbestos,” Ziegler said.

Ottawa Tourism is hoping to start to reverse a long decline in the number of American Tourists who visit Ottawa this year with the sesquicentennial celebrations. rick madonik/torstar news service

City hopes to attract American visitors travel

But agency says it’s too early to predict effect of Canada 150 Adam Kveton

For Metro | Ottawa There are hopes for a rebound in American tourism thanks to the 150th celebrations happening in Ottawa this year.

Despite American tourist

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numbers down in Canada since the early 2000s, Ottawa Tourism says it hopes to buck the trend this year.

“It is too early to tell what the uptake will be in the U.S. though with the full slate of 2017 events and the high-profile media coverage, we’re optimistic,” said Jantine Van Kregten, director of Communications with Ottawa Tourism.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of American tourists travelling here has been down since the early 2000s, when the high was 15 million visits in a year. Stats Canada said what

4.3%

The total number of tourists from the United States declined 4.3 per cent in 2014.

likely influenced that decline was the SARS epidemic in 2003, the appreciation of the Canadian dollar between 2002 and 2008, the 2008 global recession and the introduction of stricter ID requirements to enter Canada.

The number of United States

residents entering Canada via the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa dropped from a high of more than 139,000 in 2004 to about 103,000 in 2015.

Ottawa Tourism numbers that include tourists entering by way of bus, car or train show U.S. visitors to Ottawa declined by about 4.3 per cent overall in 2014, totalling about 370,000.

Ottawa Tourism said it’s supporting a renewed marketing effort in the U.S. after Destination Canada pulled marketing there between 2012 and 2015.

“In 2017, we expect great things,” said Van Kregten.

Environment Canada calls for major winter storm Get ready for yet more snow.

Environment Canada put out a special weather statement Sunday morning, warning that come Monday evening Ottawa can expect a major storm.

The storm coming from the southern United States is expected to move up the east coast and hit Ottawa, with snow starting Monday and continuing all the way into Tuesday evening.

The agency warned to expect low visibility and bad travel conditions because of the storm. metro tourism

Lord Elgin Hotel renovations completed The Lord Elgin Hotel has completed its multimilliondollar renovations in time for what management hopes will be a record year in 2017.

The overhaul began last year while the hotel was celebrating its 75th anniversary, with hopes of capitalizing on the Ottawa 2017 festivities.

The original timeline called for work to be wrapped up by early December, but general manager David Smythe says he isn’t discouraged by the mid-January completion.

The total cost of renovations to the Lord Elgin came in at $12 million.

Improvements included a full stripping down of the rooms, as well as the installation of new marble tile floors, showers and vanities. metro

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Ottawa

Monday, January 23, 2017

3

VOICES OF THE POLICE We are training officers to think about staying out of trouble rather than to do police work .

Where I do a lot of my work is almost all black. Who do you think I am going to be pulling over?

To be able to give a warning keeps me from complaints I am stopping people because they are black.

Diversity is concentrated in certain places.

A lot of those places is where there are the most gangs, drugs and shootings.

No matter what the data ultimately says the OPS is going to be blasted.

These are special interest groups with too much time on their hands looking for controversy where there is none.

A selection of comments officers made to two researchers asking for their views on the traffic stop race data collection project.

Officers didn’t trust research EXCLUSIVE

Many admit in interviews to skewing data on traffic stops Ryan Tumilty

Metro | Ottawa Many Ottawa police officers didn’t trust a two-year study of racial profiling during traffic stops and some skewed results out of fear they’d be painted as racists, according to a report obtained exclusively by Metro.

In interviews conducted by two local researchers, officers admitted to entering inaccurate information, avoiding

ethnic communities or simply not performing traffic stops.

The traffic stop project stems from a human rights complaint settled in 2012. Ottawa police agreed to a two-year data project that ran from 2013 to 2015 collecting information on traffic stops, including the driver’s race and whether the officer knew that before they started a stop.

Using that data researchers from York University released a report last fall, which concluded Middle Eastern and black drivers, especially young men, are more likely to be pulled over.

It found no evidence of racial profiling and also said most officers didn’t know the driver’s race before starting a traffic stop.

Two years ago Ottawa police management commissioned

Gregory Brown and Phillip Primeau, researchers and doctoral candidates, to examine officer attitudes to that project.

Primeau and Brown’s project aimed to examine officer’s attitudes about collecting the data and found many feared it would be used against them in professional conduct hearings.

“The theme of trust was disclosed by interview study participants in almost every interview,” wrote the two researchers.

The researchers conducted interviews with 57 officers, or about 10 per cent of the force’s front line.

The York researchers who did the overall project mentioned the Primeau and Brown study in their final report, but said they did not think it had a significant

impact on the overall result.

— and therefore they essentially “That constituted a very small opt-out of the requirements,” fraction of the members so it’s they wrote. Officers expressed doubtful that it’s representa- concern their data would not tive,” said Lesley Jacobs with take into account what area the York team at the of the city they patime. “The idea that trolled and became it was widespread or hesitant to initiate distorting, there is no traffic stops at all.

“Where I do a lot basis for that.”

Officers also told Black drivers of my work is almost Primeau and Brown were pulled over all black. Who do they would enter in- 2.3 more times you think I am goaccurate data if they than census data ing to be pulling over would suggest is felt they had pulled for traffic stops,” one normal. over too many nonofficer told researchwhite drivers and ers. sometimes said they’d not been Ottawa Police Association able to perceive the driver’s race president Matt Skof said there even if they had. was hesitation among members, “These participants most in the early months of the prooften felt that collecting such ject, but over time he believes data was irrelevant to the deci- that changed. sion to initiate the traffic stop “You return to your patterns

2.3

after a couple of months, because it is ingrained in your profession to do so,” he said.

Primeau and Brown conducted their interviews between March and October 2015 when the project was coming to an end.

In a report going to the police board Monday, numbers show officers did 10,000 fewer traffic stops in 2016 than in 2015.

Skof said he believes the drop in traffic stops is a staffing issue, but understands officers’ concerns about the race data collection project not reflecting deployment.

“There is this constant assumption that we are choosing where we patrol and that’s not the case at all,” he said. “Where the community asks us to police is where we go.”

4 Monday, January 23, 2017

Ottawa Gender inequality in the spotlight — Marchers move along Elgin Street in downtown Ottawa on Saturday.

Fightin’ words — Several women highlighted President Donald Trump’s troubling words on sexual assault at the march on Saturday.

United with a purpose — The march attracted an estimated 7,000 people. photos: Adam Kveton/ for metro

Catalyst: ‘This is the beginning’ women’s march

Organizers say protest about more than just Trump Adam Kveton

For Metro | Ottawa Thousands took to the streets, signs in hand and pussy hats on head, for Ottawa’s Women’s March on Saturday.

The turnout, far exceeding the organizers’ expectations, clogged the corner of Elgin and Lisgar streets where, by some estimates, 7,000 people had come to march through Ottawa

in solidarity with 600 similar marches happening worldwide, including a massive march in Washington, D.C. For many, like dual American/ Canadian citizen Barbara Hall, the march was a chance to voice opposition to newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We have a president that stands diametrically opposed to everything I believe in,” she said.

For others, like Martha Cassidy, the march was about celebrating a positive step forward in the wake of being sexually assaulted.

Cassidy’s friend, Morgan Windle, said she doesn’t think the march is about Trump, but that his election has served as a catalyst.

“It’s not technically an antiTrump protest,” said organizer

Catherine Butler to the crowd, though she acknowledged the many people there marching for that reason. They carried signs declaring, “Pussies grab back,” “Nasty women unite” and other slogans in reaction to Trump quotes.

Other marchers stood up for missing aboriginal women and

already exists. “Thanks to Donald Trump we know that we have some more work to do,” she said to a crowd of about 800 packed into the Bronson Centre where the march ended.

“Amazing. This is great,” said participant Christine Tinker.

At the same time, she acknowledged a need for more than this

We have a president that stands diametrically opposed to everything I believe in.

Barbara Hall

girls, for LGBTQ rights, and to point out gender and racial inequality in Canada.

Amanda Carver, another organizer of the event, said Trump has only revealed the hate that

one event. “Participating in the march is not enough.”

“I’m really glad we are afforded the opportunity to say something,” said Taylor, another marcher, adding that the

event serves as a wake-up call for people who think gender equality, women’s rights and more no longer had to be championed.

“The whole idea of this is, this is the beginning,” said Butler.

To move forward, she said, she and the other organizers of Saturday’s march plan to connect up with the global March on Washington groups and help to create a unified message.

“The (global March on Washington movement) have developed a document that outlines unity principles around participating, like economic stability, reproductive rights, and that, I think, can be the foundation of a really great movement ahead,” said Butler.

On the local level, the Women’s March on Washing-

ton — Ottawa Facebook page will soon have form letters and suggestions for what people can do on their own.

The plan is to hold Canadian politicians accountable to agreements made at the United Nations, and make sure they follow through on the commitment to a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Children, as well as other files.

Apart from that, Butler said she hopes participants can draw on the strength of the thousands who participated at the march to take action when they see sexism and misogyny around them.

While there is a lot more work to be done to have the impact, Butler said, “Those marchers did this city proud today.”

Ottawa

Monday, January 23, 2017

5

ECONOMy

Office vacancy rises in business district An anticipated drop in office vacancy rates failed to materialize last year, despite a massive increase in government spending and the local hiring of thousands of civil servants, according to a new report.

Real estate services firm Avison Young said the city’s office market recovery has “stalled.” While still relatively healthy, especially compared to cities such as Calgary that are struggling under low energy prices, vacancy rates Canadians joined hundreds of thousands of marchers in the Washington protest. the associated press

Ottawans in U.S. march

solidarity

Back to report it was ‘positive in every way’ Ryan Tumilty

Metro | Ottawa

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in large part due to the federal government’s demand for space.

However, the market began to loosen up several years ago as the Conservatives cut spending and Public Works officials reduced the federal government’s downtown footprint by moving civil servants into buildings elsewhere in the National Capital Region, such as the Ottawa Train Yards. Peter Kovessy/ Ottawa Business Journal

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ate report by Colliers International that said Ottawa’s downtown vacancy rate inched up 10 basis points from 10.8 per cent at the end of 2015 to 10.9 per cent at the end of last year.

The federal government is Ottawa’s largest office tenant, particularly in the downtown core.

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Ottawans who took part in the massive Women’s March on Washington hope it leads to a sustained call for change and a watch on the Trump presidency.

About 50 people from Ottawa joined up with another 550 Canadians from Toronto, Montreal and Windsor at the march in Washington, which drew an estimated 500,000 people one day after President Donald Trump was sworn into office.

Rachel Eugster was among the people from Ottawa, who spent two nights sleeping on a bus to make the trip. She said it was incredible to be with so many other people.

“It was huge, but it was extremely positive in every way,” she said.

She said the streets were absolutely crowded with people taking in the march, with people from all over the United States attending.

“I talked to one woman from West Virginia who was 90 years old and there with her daughter,” said Eugster.

She said when people found out they had come from Canada to the event they were very welcoming.

“They were so astonished and grateful and they expressed lots of thanks,” she said.

Eugster said she is hopeful the march will becoming a launching-off point for more sustained action that will make sure Trump’s view are not seen as normal.

“It was an answer to the election of someone who taunts the disabled, who is at the forefront of normalizing hatred in all its forms,” she said. “We can not let that run unchecked.”

in Ottawa rose in 2016.

“Last year, we were anticipating a slight drop in the vacancy rate, which is what typically happens after a change in government, especially a Liberal government,” said Michael Church, the managing director of Avison Young’s Ottawa office.

Instead, the downtown availability rate actually rose by 80 basis points during 2016, the firm reported.

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6 Monday, January 23, 2017

Canada

A history of helicopter heat Ethics

Trudeau not the first to stir controversy over private flight If only Justin Trudeau had bumped into Earl Deveaux at the airport in the Bahamas — he might have been able to save himself a chopper-load of political grief.

After all, Deveaux — formerly the island nation’s environment minister — has himself been a passenger on board the Aga Khan’s private helicopter, just like Trudeau, and was made to suffer the professional consequences.

It was September 2010 when someone snapped a photo of Deveaux walking away from the helicopter in question during a stopover on his way to the Aga Khan’s private island.

For Deveaux, the political perils were decidedly more glaring.

The Aga Khan was seeking permission to dredge offshore from his island, inside an established marine reserve, in order to make room for his massive luxury yacht, among other vessels. Locals feared irrevocable environmental harm.

The area, known as the Exumas, had become popular with celebrities and super-wealthy people keen on owning their own island. Indeed, the Hollywood Reporter calls the Bahamas the

PM Justin Trudeau has sparked controversy after boarding a private helicopter owned by Aga Khan. THE CANADIAN PRESS

“epicentre of the private-island world.”

Owners include actor Johnny Depp, singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw and former investment banker Steve Harrington.

The Aga Khan — the wealthy philanthropist and hereditary spiritual leader to the world’s approximately 15 million Ismaili Muslims — happens to be a close family friend of Trudeau’s.

Trudeau has been facing heat over the flight ever since the National Post reported on his family holiday at the Aga Khan’s island, which also included Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan and Liberal

party president Anna Gainey.

The federal Conflict of Interest Act and Trudeau’s own ethics guidelines for his cabinet ministers bar the use of sponsored travel in private aircraft, allowing it only for exceptional circumstances and only with the commissioner’s prior approval.

The act also prohibits a minister or any member of their family from accepting gifts or “advantages” that could reasonably be seen as influencing government decisions. The only exception is if the person providing the gift is a friend.

The federal ethics commis-

sioner is looking into the holiday and the chopper flight. Trudeau has repeatedly called the Aga Khan a longtime family friend who served as a pallbearer at his father’s funeral.

Back in 2010, there were immediate calls for Deveaux’s resignation. The Bahamian newspaper the Tribune quoted him as saying he couldn’t be bought with a single flight.

Then-prime minister Hubert Ingraham stood by his minister, admitting that he, too, had hopped a ride in the very same helicopter to meet with the Aga Khan and foreign dignitaries.

At the time, a frequent political argument — similar to that of Trudeau — was that there was no other means of accessing the 140-hectare Bell Island, which the Aga Khan reportedly purchased in 2009 for $100 million US. Another: In the island archipelago of the Bahamas, local politicians ride regularly in private helicopters owned by developers.

Such practices were also commonplace in Canadian politics, but are now expressly forbidden under federal ethics rules, which is why the flight was controversial. THE CANADIAN PRESS

la Loche

Marking anniversary of deadly school shooting

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is remembering the anniversary of the deadly La Loche, Sask., school shooting, saying the tiny community has inspired the whole country.

Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of the shooting that

killed two staff and wounded seven others in the high school.

Two teenage brothers were also killed in a nearby home.

Trudeau issued a statement Sunday that said in the year since the tragedy, the people of La Loche have shown resilience,

determination to rebuild and optimism for a better future.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said in a separate statement that all of Saskatchewan wept with La Loche after the shooting.

He said the province has been working with the community to

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lost far too soon, and to turn the pain of loss into seeds of hope for the future,” Wall said.

“To the community of La Loche, please accept our deepest sympathies and know that you have our unwavering support,” Trudeau said. THE CANADIAN PRESS

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Alberta

Domestic violence leave now a reality A union in Alberta has negotiated domestic violence leave for members who work at a longterm care facility.

The United Steelworkers says the agreement means Rivercrest Care Centre workers who are victims of domestic violence can take paid leave for legal, medical and counselling appointments without fear of losing their jobs.

Ray White, president of Local 1-207, said the contract language is a first for the union in Alberta and it plans to table similar proposals with other employers.

“The stigma attached to domestic violence is bad enough without having to go to your employer hat in hand begging for time off,” he said.

“We have it on three other contract tables right now and, as they become available, we will be putting the proposal forward at every place we bargain.”

Blair Halliday, chief operating officer of Qualicare Health Services Corp., said he was initially surprised when the union tabled the proposal for workers at the Fort Saskatchewan nursing home. But after learning more about domestic violence, the company decided it was the right thing to do for the employees, who are mainly women.

Halliday said the benefits outweigh the cost, even in Alberta’s tough economy.

“We thought it was a reasonable thing to do,” Halliday said.

The union hopes provincial governments will take action to ensure all people can take time off to get help they need, he said.

Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray said the government will look at domestic violence leave as part of a review of the province’s labour laws, but she gave no indication when that may be. THE CANADIAN PRESS

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Canada

Monday, January 23, 2017

Kid’s frown amuses Trudeau

Family clarifies photo reflects son’s squabble with sibling A photo of a boy looking exasperated sitting behind the prime minister has been making the rounds on social media, even giving Justin Trudeau a laugh, but the boy’s family wants to set the record straight about the circumstances.

Abdel Kader Al Shaikh was photographed covering his hands over his eyes with his head tilted towards the ceiling as he sat in the front row of Trudeau’s town hall in Fredericton last week.

The photo struck a chord with social media users, with some interpreting the boy’s expression as frustration with the prime minister.

Trudeau joked that as a former teacher, he’s used to speaking in front of an audience of squirming children.

“I haven’t seen faces like these kids’ since I taught math class,” Trudeau wrote in a tweet that generated thousands of likes.

“Thanks New Brunswick!”

Abdel Al Shaikh, 10, holds a photo taken of him during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent visit to Fredericton, on Saturday — sadly, while his little brother was bugging him. THE CANADIAN PRESS

While Trudeau’s former students may have grimaced in math class, 10-year-old Abdel Kader was eager to hear what the prime minister had to say last Tuesday, his father said in an interview aided by an interpreter.

Hassan Al Shaikh said he and his wife, Radia, along with four of their seven children waited for two hours to see Trudeau, even

I haven’t seen faces like these kids’ since I taught math class.

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letting some of the kids skip school so they could see their “hero” in person. The family holds Trudeau in the highest esteem, Hassan Al Shaikh said, as the “only leader in the world” who welcomed Syrian refugees with open arms. “(I’m) so grateful for all of the Canadian people ... who received (our family) with amazing hos-

environment

Nunavut not prepped for climate change

pitality,” he said.

Abdel Kader watched intently as Trudeau took questions from the audience, but he kept being distracted by his two-year-old brother, Omar, who cried and made noise while the prime minister was speaking, according to the boys’ father.

“He was saying to him, ‘Please listen, listen, listen,” Hassan Al Shaikh said. “When he gave up, he put his hands on his head.”

Hassan Al Shaikh said that he and Radia were horrified to learn that a photo of the sibling squabble had somehow made its way to the prime minister.

The parents feared their son had offended Trudeau and that his gesture could even invite punishment for the whole family, based on their “bad memory” of living under the Syrian government.

Eventually, it was made clear that the prime minister was amused by the image, and Hassan Al Shaikh said he was heartened by Trudeau’s “democratic reaction.”

The Al Shaikhs just passed their one-year anniversary in New Brunswick, and are expecting an addition to their family. They plan to name the boy “Justin Trudeau Al Shaikh.”

Programs to help people adapt to climate change in a part of Canada where help may be needed the most are stuck in the ice, a study has concluded.

For more than a decade Inuit in Nunavut have been saying that the old ways for building, travel and hunting on the land no longer apply. But most of the recommendations from a plethora of plans and task forces remain just that.

“We haven’t made as much progress as people would have liked or as is needed,” said Jolene Labbe, the McGill University researcher, who conducted a survey recently published in NRC Research Press.

Labbe’s study found 700 initiatives to help people adapt to climate change in Nunavut — from community efforts to federally funded programs. She found that less than one-third have actually resulted in action.

“Our study finds few examples of concrete actions for planned adaptation,” the report says.

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7

8 Monday, January 23, 2017

World

‘Everything collapsed on us’ Israel delays settlements

Italy

Avalanche survivors tell harrowing stories Some of the lucky ones were sipping hot tea near the fireplace in their mountain resort hotel, waiting for snowplows to arrive so they could finally go home, after a winter holiday made nerve-wracking by a day of ground-shaking earthquakes and heavy snowfall.

Suddenly, Vincenzo Forti and girlfriend Giorgia Galassi were knocked violently off a wicker sofa. A few other guests nearby tumbled off their chairs in the elegant yet rustic reception hall.

An avalanche of snow — and not a tremendously powerful earthquake as survivors first imagined — had just barrelled down the mountainside Wednesday evening, smashing into the Hotel Rigopiano and trapping more than 30 holiday-makers, including four children, and workers inside.

On Sunday evening, rescuers

A rescue team works at the avalanche-hit Hotel Rigopiano. contributed/aFP/Getty Images

spotted a man’s body in the wreckage, raising to six the number of confirmed dead.

Twenty-three others remained missing, with hopes dependent on whether anyone might have found survival in some air pocket searchers hadn’t

yet reached.

While the nine people who were eventually rescued, including all the children, remained hospitalized Sunday, some details of their harrowing survival accounts began emerging, through family, friends

and rescuers who spoke with them at their bedside or by telephone.

Among the details: the seemingly endless isolation, since the snow absorbed any sound from the outside world.

“There were four of us, in

front of the fireplace, drinking tea,” Galassi recalled.

Suddenly, “everything collapsed on top of us, and I didn’t understand anything anymore,” Galassi, a 22-year-old university student, told Radio Giulianova, a radio station her hometown of the Adriatic coastal town of Giulianova, where Forti, 25, owns a seaside pizzeria.

Cut off from the outside world, the couple heard no sound. But “we were convinced that someone would come, because it was impossible they wouldn’t be aware of us,” Galassi said. “We banged until I couldn’t anymore, we yelled.”

“It was like we were in a tin can,” she said.

There was no food, but there was ice, from the avalanche.

“We ate ice, that was our fortune,” Galassi said.

Forti’s fishing buddy, Luigi Valiante, added more details, telling reporters after visiting him in a hospital Sunday that the young man “realizes he is a miraculous survivor. Also considering where he was — a square metre (space) in the cold, without lights, with a broken sofa, a girder splitting it up.” THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

key vote

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a vote Sunday on an explosive proposal to annex one of the West Bank’s largest settlements, apparently to co-ordinate his policy toward the Palestinians with the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The move put on hold legislation that threatens to unleash fresh violence and damage already faded hopes for Palestinian independence. It also may mark Trump’s first foray into Middle East diplomacy.

After eight years of frosty relations with President Barack Obama, Netanyahu has welcomed Trump’s election as an opportunity to strengthen ties between two allied nations.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the prosettlement Jewish Home Party, has been pushing Netanyahu to abandon the internationally backed idea of a Palestinian state and to annex the Maaleh Adumim settlement near Jerusalem.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Politics

Gambia’s ex-leader empties coffers, flees with luxury cars

Exiled Gambian ruler Yahya Jammeh stole millions of dollars in his final weeks in power, plundering the state coffers and shipping out luxury vehicles by cargo plane, a special adviser for the new president said Sunday.

Meanwhile, a regional military force rolled in, greeted by cheers, to secure this tiny West African nation so that democratically elected President Adama Barrow could return home. He remained in neighbouring Senegal, where he took the oath of office Thursday because of concerns for his safety.

At a press conference in the Senegalese capital, Barrow’s special adviser Mai Ahmad Fatty confirmed that Jammeh made off with more than $11.4 million US during a two-week period alone. That is only what they have discovered so far since Jammeh and his family took an offer of exile after more than 22 years in power and departed late Saturday.

“The Gambia is in financial distress. The coffers are virtually empty. That is a state of fact,” Fatty said. “It has been confirmed by technicians in the ministry of finance and the Central Bank of the Gambia.”

Fatty also confirmed that a

Senegalese ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) soldiers arrive in Banjul on Sunday. AFP/Getty Images

In exile Gambian ruler Yahya Jammeh, who went into exile under mounting international pressure, is now in Equatorial Guinea, home to Africa’s longestserving ruler and not a party to the International Criminal Court.

Chadian cargo plane had transported luxury goods out of the country on Jammeh’s behalf in his final hours in power, including an unknown number of vehicles.

Fatty said officials at the Gambia airport have been ordered not to allow any of Jammeh’s belongings to leave.

Separately, it appeared that some of his goods remained in Guinea, where Jammeh and his closest allies stopped on their flight into exile.

With Jammeh gone, a country that had waited in silence during the crisis sprang back to life. Shops and restaurants opened, music played and people danced in the streets.

Some of the 45,000 people who had fled the tiny country during the crisis began to return.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

World Canada

Ready to confront a new reality Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberal government will confront the reality of Donald Trump in the White House as his cabinet members begin gathering Sunday in Calgary for a three-day retreat that are to include discussions with an adviser to the new president.

Up to now, Trudeau has had a relatively smooth ride guiding Canada’s relations with the U.S., thanks to being so simpatico with Barack Obama — natural allies on climate change, with a close personal relationship that oozed brotherly affection.

Now the Liberals are girding for a major reset with Washington, which is expected to be the preoccupying pastime for Liberal ministers during their upcoming meetings.

Dominic Barton, the head of the Trudeau government’s influential council of economic advisers, is also set to attend.

Earlier this month, he cautioned that Trump’s pledges on trade and taxation must be taken seriously in Canada.

The Liberal government hopes to send a message to the Trump administration that Canada and the U.S. have a shared agenda, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Sunday in Calgary.

“We will have to see what the administration actually does,” he said.

Earlier Sunday in Washington, Trump said he had scheduled meetings with Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and signalled negotiations will have to begin on NAFTA. “I ran a campaign somewhat based on NAFTA,” Trump said.

“But we’re going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration, on security at the border.”

The date of the meeting between Trudeau and Trump has yet to be announced.

Monday, January 23, 2017

9

International outpouring sends message to Trump

Women’s March

Millions come out to over 600 sister marches worldwide In a global exclamation of defiance and solidarity, more than 1 million people rallied at women’s marches in the nation’s capital and cities around the world Saturday to send President Donald Trump an emphatic message on his first full day in office that they won’t let his agenda go unchallenged.

Trump responded Sunday, undermining the public opposition then defending demonstrators’ rights a short time later.

“Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election!

Why didn’t these people vote?

Celebs hurt cause badly,” tweeted Trump, at 7:51 a.m. Ninety-five minutes later, he struck a more conciliatory tone.

“Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don’t always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views,” the president tweeted at 9:26 am.

And protesters had done just

that.

“Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!” marchers in Washington chanted.

Many of the women came wearing pink, pointy-eared “pussyhats” to mock the new president. Plenty of men joined in, too, contributing to surprising numbers everywhere from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles to Mexico City, Paris, Berlin, London, Sydney and even Antarctica.

The Washington rally alone attracted over 500,000 people according to city officials — apparently more than Trump’s inauguration drew on Friday. It

was easily one of the biggest demonstrations in the city’s history, and as night fell, not a single arrest was reported.

The international outpouring served to underscore the degree to which Trump has unsettled people in both hemispheres.

Around the world, women brandished signs with slogans such as “Women won’t back down” and “Less fear more love.”

They decried Trump’s stand on such issues as abortion, health care, diversity and climate change. And they branded him a sexist, a bully, a bigot and more.

All told, more than 600 “sister marches” were planned world-

wide. Crowd estimates from police and organizers around the globe added up to approximately four million.

Tens of thousands of protesters squeezed into London’s Trafalgar Square. In Paris, thousands rallied in the Eiffel Tower neighbourhood in a joyful atmosphere, singing and carrying posters reading “We have our eyes on you Mr. Trump” and “With our sisters in Washington.” Hundreds gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square in freezing weather, mockingly waving portraits of Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Metro/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

4 million strong: The March heard ‘Round the world Washington — 500,000

London — 100,000

L.A. — 750,000

Berlin — 1,000

NEW YORK — 250,000

Sydney — 3,000

Paris — 10,000

Antarctica — 30

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Solidarity

Canadians to American sisters: You are not alone May Warren

Metro | Toronto After two nights of sleeping upright buses, an entire day of walking and more than 24 hours without a shower, a few hundred Canadian women finally arrived back in Toronto on Sunday afternoon.

They were tired but elated and ready to take their energy forward over the next four years, fresh from the historic

Women’s March on Washington.

“I believe it’s just the start,” said Jo-Anne Miller.

The fifty-something seasoned activist made the trip alongside her twenty-something friend Jocelyn Murphy.

Their generational split — not uncommon among those in the masses — serves as an example of what made the momentum created over the weekend so important.

The march was 29-year-old Kat Scott’s first time doing any-

thing in the “political sphere.”

She considers herself a feminist, was inspired to action by Gloria Steinem and “at root” just wants to end sexism.

“It’s those moments of just reminding myself that I’m not alone,” she said, about the importance of the march. “You can pull on this memory.”

The march gave the world a glimpse of the “the power of the people,” especially when it comes to fighting the “intersectionality of oppression” women of colour and indigen-

ous women face in Canada and the U.S., Miller said.

Standing out in their red toques amongst the thousands of pink knitted hats that stormed the capitol on Saturday, Canada’s women, and some men, were welcomed loudly.

Americans cheered them loudly along the march’s route, yelling “thank you for coming,” and “you go Canada, you go.”

The event was organized as a peaceful gathering in support of diversity, equality and inclu-

sion, not as a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump.

But, his face and name popped up throughout, on signs where he was depicted as a clown or as a puppet of Vladimir Putin, and in chants.

At one point near the National Mall, marchers sang out “we don’t want your tiny hands, anywhere near our underpants.”

But, the movement was about much more. Issues spotted on signs ranged from reproductive rights, to climate change and Black Lives Matter.

A group of Canadians joined hundreds of thousands of people taking part in the Women’s March in Washington. May Warren/Metro

Monday, January 23, 2017

Your essential daily news

VICKY MOCHAMA

first steps must yield next steps This weekend’s women’s marches were, for many, exhilarating moments of respite after months of anxiety. But, now that the triumphant moment has passed, those who would dedicate themselves to political resistance must prepare for the difficult road ahead.

At the inauguration, my chest felt tight. Throughout the day, Trump supporters were exceedingly nice to me. A condescending kindness. I was told “Good for you!” about doing my job. A minute later, they’d be yelling “Lock her up” or “Make America great.”

At the women’s march, I exhaled, finally letting go of the breath I’d been holding in since election night.

My cousin and aunt, D.C.-area residents who put me up for the weekend, have been apoplectic and yet resigned, unable to bear watching anymore election coverage but unable to look away. But at the march, my cousin said, “I don’t know what I expected. It’s just so nice not to feel alone.”

My cousin is determined not to let the Trump presidency disrupt her dreams. She’s engaging with it. She has signed up for a newsletter from Shaun King, a reporter and civil rights activist, that alerts her to legislative issues and what she can do about them.

All over, Americans are resisting Trump and will continue to resist him.

Clearly, this election has been a political awakening for so many. But there’s nothing romantic or glorious about it.

The coalition of people who attended this past weekend’s marches face an abyss: denial of climate change, increased restrictions to a woman’s right to choose, an end to religious freedom and social liberty for Muslims, the denial of citizenship for immigrants, an administration that is brazen in its lies.

Exhilarating as the march was, the road ahead

will be perilous and exhausting.

All the progress of the Obama presidency — both in its racial significance and its actual policy making — is now threatened.

But the system that put

borne the brunt of the pendulum swings of history.

According to DC Metro, the day of the women’s march was the second largest in total ridership, at just over one million.

The record for first place

white as Trump’s inauguration the day before, but pretty white.

Black, latino and indigenous people were there but not with the fullness and volume that they had been eight years ago.

Inauguration of ... What?

by Ani Castillo

Last Friday a helicopter came to the White House and took Obama away forever. Inside I screamed, “Barack, don’t leave!” It felt as if the only responsible adults were leaving the house.

Will give attention and screen time to leaders who are working towards healing the planet and creating peace?

Trump in office is not in any way new. Much as the emancipation of slaves was followed by the terrorism of Reconstruction, the social-welfare edifice of the New Deal and the civilchief operating officer, print

Your essential daily news

rights gains of the ’60s and ’70s were eroded by the law-and-order social policy and trickle-down economics that became ascendant under Reagan and have remained so ever since.

To some, this election

Sandy MacLeod

Donald’s superpower is his extreme visibility.

My theory is that many people voted for him because familiarity had, in the unconscious, become trust. A case study in marketing.

It is safe to say that most living creatures on earth didn’t want Donald to receive the power he’s been granted.

is the natural conclusion of a nation built on white supremacy and dedicated to the exploitation and destruction of black, brown, indigenous and female bodies — bodies that have & editor Cathrin Bradbury

vice president

is held by the first Obama inauguration, in 2009. The march crowd, however, was different from the Obama gathering, which I also attended. This one was pretty white — not as executive vice president, regional sales

Steve Shrout

What will this inauguration mean to us? An era of hate or an era of unity? An era of apathy and detachment or an era of intense activism?

My highest hope is that we will stand up for the weak, donate money, meet with people. We’ll make art, organize marches, make noise, defend what’s right!

Time will pass. But what will it tell? Only what we choose to do with it.

said of typical protests by black, latino and indigenous activists.

The presumption of innocence and the safety that white protesters are afforded by the police was evident at the women’s march. At the same time that non-white activists are advocating for change, white allies can step up to ensure their safety.

In an interview with NPR, the New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones said, “It is important to understand that the inequality we see…. is both structural, it is systemic, but it’s also upheld by individual choices.”

The threat that the Trump administration represents cannot be brushed aside. White allies must seek to ensure not just their self-interest but the safety of others. By continuing to show up, the privileges of whiteness can be extended to the oppressed.

The decision to show up to Washington, D.C., on an overcast day in January is an important choice and a powerful first step. In the days, weeks and months of the next four years, first steps must become next steps.

Contact Vicky at vicky. mochama@metronews.ca on Twitter: @vmochama Philosopher Cat

by Jason Logan

LOVE IS THE PERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUALS. The march was chaotic and spontaneous, yet the free-flowing movement of masses of people wasn’t met with violence by the police.

The same cannot be advertiser inquiries

IRIS MURDOCH

adinfoottawa@metronews.ca General phone 613-236-5058

At Paris Fashion Week, designer Agnes B. shows contrast with marl grey overcoats mixed with graffiti-patterned foulards and tops

Monday, January 23, 2017

Your essential daily news Jonathan Forani

who had inherited all their riches and were able to have very public displays of their leisurely life, to be able to go to the horse races, to play polo,” says MacNeill.

“To some degree, the phenomenon of people putting Instagrams up is a new version of conspicuous consumption — ‘I’m in this gym and you’re not.’”

Torstar New Service

$3 billion Canada’s growing industry of fitness clubs is worth $3 billion, according to recent data from research firm Ibis.

Sarah Kehoe

It has been three years since her first ride, but Casey Graham still remembers the dark candlelit room, the ardent leader at the front, and the thumping beats.

For the 24-year-old, that first SoulCycle spin class in New York City was a celestial thing.

“It was life-changing,” says Graham, who works in marketing. She’d never done a spin class before, but heard the boutique indoor-cycling brand dubbed a “party on a bike,” was different from the other fluorescent-lit offerings available.

“It doesn’t feel like a workout class,” she says, but more like an upscale bar in “gym form.”

After her ride, Graham felt she’d been welcomed into a “very exclusive” club. She purchased the branded attire and began imploring the company over social media to come to Toronto.

SoulCycle arrives March 2.

Its first Canadian location is in Toronto, with another slated for Vancouver by the end of the year.

Spin classes are $28 a pop.

Its arrival is the latest and buzziest of high-end fitness brands that offer far more than a good sweat. These are clubs with personal trainers and stationary bikes as well as apparel shops, vast Instagram followings and celebrity endorsements.

They are not just selling fitness, they are selling a lifestyle.

There’s Equinox, with its fullservice spa, chilled eucalyptus towels and $176 monthly memberships; the $280-a-month CrossFit YKV; the “Pilates on crack” machines of Studio Lagree ($32 a class) and the “Pilates-meets-ballet” of Pure Barre ($199 a month).

Pricey fitness boutiques have been around for years, but the levels of specialization and use

Selling the soul of fitness

Saddle up for some $28 spin classes. Boutique gyms, offering an exclusive sense of tribalism, are booming of the phrase “boutique fitness” is relatively new, says Margaret MacNeill, University of Toronto associate professor of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

“It gives a sense of high-class.

It gives a sense of luxury. And all of those things give a sense of exclusiveness that you’re a member of an elite, special, tiny club,” MacNeill says.

SoulCycle fan Graham says it’s worth the price of admission for the “overall vibe” — the pristine white lobby, the atmospheric lighting of the studio and its instructors who coach riders to

“tap it back,” a phrase now popularized by the studio referring to the “squat-on-a-bike” bouncing motion bashed by some critics for being counterproductive and potentially dangerous.

Health and fitness columnist James Fell gave the SoulCycle workout a “failing grade” in 2011 for bad “exercise physiology and biomechanics.” Others contest the club’s seeming employment of people without fitness backgrounds who have more experience as entertainers.

Gabby Cohen, senior vicepresident of PR and brand strat-

egy at SoulCycle, says its full-time instructors (five are expected at the incoming Toronto location) go through a 10-week training regimen and the team has a physical therapist on staff to ensure the workouts do no harm.

As for harm done to the wallet, it’s the cost of running a high-end gym. Cohen says full locker amenities with complimentary shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, free towels, hair ties, gum and ear plugs are all provided at the front desk. High-end spots including SoulCycle and Equinox offer a

lifestyle benefits too — nutritional coaching, a kids club, work spaces and lush interiors.

Going boutique is a reflection of the public exposure fitness centres were getting from the gym-mirror selfie crowd. At some of these clubs, members exit through gift shops where everything from candles and cashmere gloves to baby onesies embossed with club lingo are sold.

MacNeill sees this rise of public displays of fitness as a kind of New-Age “conspicuous consumption.” “It was a criticism of the leisure class (in the 1800s), those

Indeed, there are a lot of people who are not in those gyms which require deeper pockets than the monthly membership fees of $10 to $20 a month (Hone Fitness, Planet Fitness, Fit4Less, World Gym) to $35 to $65 a month (Snap Fitness, GoodLife, LA Fitness, YMCA). These centres offer similar workouts, but provide fewer if any “highend” amenities.

Rod Macdonald, vice-president of canfitpro has worked in both the commercial and non-profit fitness worlds. He found a kind of “tribalism” or desire for a sense of belonging is seen in all areas, no matter the membership fee and follower count on Instagram.

“The more someone feels like they really belong somewhere,” says Macdonald, “the more likely they are to stay and be advocates for the tribe.”

Superfan Graham is ready to join. “I’ve never felt the way I did after a SoulCycle class,” she says — elated, unstoppable, her “best self.”

After spending upwards of $50 on two workouts, she says the sweat and lifestyle are worth the price. “You get what you pay for.”

Stretching out resources now sets a smart tone

advice

Gail Vaz-Oxlade

For Metro Canada Despite resolutions to not go into January with debt, loads of people find themselves hesitant to open up their credit card statements. With debt to deal with, higher hydro bills and ever-rising food and gas prices, it’s time to focus on ways to trim back.

Welcome to Make Do Month, when you stretch everything a little farther so you spend a lot less. You’ll scoop the last

drop out of every bottle or jar.

You’ll dig to the back of your food cupboard to use up the noodles, the soup, the bag of beans. And you’ll go through your freezer and eat everything that’s been sitting there for the past six months.

January is also a good month to experiment with a new routine. Used to buying coffee every day? Brew your own at home or work and save big-time. Go out for lunch?

Brown-bag it four out of every five days so you have the money to pay off that holiday debt.

If you have family or friends whose birthdays fall in January, committing to Make Do Month means you won’t rush out and buy a present. Instead, you’ll find a way to give something of yourself instead. Make their favourite cookies, offer to cook a meal or a bunch of meals for the freezer for those extra busy workdays, or create a coupon for free babysitting. Maybe you’re a computer genius and can offer to do maintenance or repairs. Perhaps you’re a mechanic and can offer a tuneup. Substitute your energy for spending money.

While you’re being frugal and using up all your stuff so you don’t have to spend money in January, why not inventory the things you seem to have a lot of: screws, magazines, nail polish, face creams, shampoo, books, yarn, scrapbooking supplies. Measuring your abundance and committing to buying nothing more until you’ve used up what you have is a great way to take Make Do Month and make it a year-long way to save money.

After the buzz of the holidays you’ll no doubt be happy to stay home for the first

couple of weeks. Then you may start feeling itchy. You’ve got to get out.

Before you hit that great new restaurant that just opened up or head out to the clubs, remember that January is Make Do Month. Call up a couple of friends and throw a potluck dinner instead. My girlfriend Annie asked all her invitees to bring a dish from their cultural heritage. I showed up with oxtail soup and partook in everything from cabbage rolls to kafta.

January is a great month to start a tradition of once a

month game or poker night and rotate from one friend’s home to another. No one says you can’t have fun in Make Do Month. You just can’t spend gobs of money.

Make a conscious decision to stretch every dollar as far as it’ll go. Try it and see if just becoming conscious saves you money.

I’ll bet you’re pleasantly surprised.

For more money advice, visit Gail’s website at gailvazoxlade. com

12 Monday, January 23, 2017

Entertainment

johanna schneller what i’m watching

Greatest show (of strength) on Earth...

Alicia Keys performs in Washington D.C. getty images THE SHOW: The Women’s March on Washington THE MOMENT: The Mall

I thought the show was going to be the rally.

On a stage somewhere near Independence Ave. and Third Street in Washington D.C., dozens of speakers would address a crowd (they expected 250,000). I thought I’d be listening to Gloria Steinem, Michael Moore, America Ferrera.

Janelle Monae talked to the Mothers of the Movement, who’d lost children to police violence.

But my group of seven, who’d flown down from Toronto, couldn’t get near it.

We came close: We talked our way behind a barricade, which happened to be the spot where celebs were hustled after they spoke.

Here came Cher, shaking hands with the crowd. Alicia Keys and Jake Gyllenhaal (sporting a bushy beard) stuck to their security men. But we gave up on trying to see the stage. There were simply too

many people.

So we headed for the Mall, DC’s front lawn. We stepped out of the tree line, and my knees buckled. A solid wash of humanity, hundreds of thousands, mostly female, stretched as far as one could see, sporting pink pussy hats and carrying witty signs (my favorite: Putin wearing an American “I Voted” sticker).

We knew it felt big, but we had no idea it was this big.

This was the show.

No matter how crowded it became ­— and where barricades made bottlenecks, it was dangerously crowded — people stayed calm. They smiled, they made room, they chatted. A million souls, myriad intentions, but one mood.

The biggest political protest in U.S. history.

The greatest show (of strength) on Earth.

Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She appears Monday through Thursday.

PLAY Yesterday’s Answers

from your daily crossword and Sudoku

for more fun and games go to metronews.ca/games

Slender Man is a character born online, created by committee through fanfiction and web forums. HBO via AP

Meet the boogeyman for the viral generation television

Slender Man doc explores Internet myth’s real-life horror Irene Taylor Brodsky was getting frustrated while working on her latest HBO documentary, investigating how the Internet was impacting kids’ brains. Then she heard about Slender Man. She was in her studio when she received an email from HBO with a link to an article about Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin, charged with stabbing their 12-year-old friend Payton Leutner 19 times. (She lived.) They’d allegedly been inspired by the Slender Man, a character born online, created by committee through fanfiction, forums and other web-born whispers.

The police report said they believed that if they killed Leutner they would be appointed to serve Slender Man as “proxies.”

“I wrote back within 10 minutes and said, ‘I guess this is our film, huh?’” Brodsky says over the phone.

She spent the next two years exploring the “Slenderverse,” the term coined for the Slender Man universe of stories, YouTube videos, video games, fan art and creepypastas (the shiver-inducing branch of copypasta, so named because you copy and paste to share them online). The finished doc, Beware the Slenderman, uses police interviews, court

video and interviews with the accused girls’ parents to get inside the heads of the incarcerated adolescents, who will be tried as adults later this year.

It airs on HBO Canada Monday at 10 p.m.

“The more he went viral, the more (people) were able to put (their) own iteration of him out there,” Brodsky says of the browser boogeyman. “And you could argue that this film that includes the story of these girls is my iteration of him. That’s the way that I understand him.”

Slender Man, a tall, thin, faceless figure in a suit, sometimes depicted with eight black tentacles, was first developed by artist Victor Surge, the alias of an American named Eric Knudsen, for a Photoshop competition on millennial slack site SomethingAwful.com. He submitted two vintage black-and-white photos of a group of children outdoors, the figure rendered as a blur lurking in the background. The character has since become the inspiration for a world of creepy creations online.

While many adults will give you a face as blank as Slender Man’s when the meme is men-

The more he went viral, the more (people) were able to put (their) own iteration of him out there.

Irene Taylor Brodsky

tioned, Brodsky quickly learned how engaged its school-aged target audience is. “The sheer volume and the number of likes that his fanfiction gets, that his images get, that the videos about him get, that validates him in kids’ minds,” she says. “The virality is what proves it worthy.”

The next big share will come from Hollywood. On Jan. 4, Deadline reported that Stomp the Yard director Sylvain White will direct a Slender Man film for Sony’s Screen Gems, which will shoot this spring.

Warner Bros. has announced Slender Man as one of the creepypasta legends it will focus on in an upcoming live-action YouTube series from Clive Barker.

And while nothing has yet come from rumours that Ryan Murphy was writing Slender Man into American Horror Story, there remains plenty of opportunity now that FX has greenlit the horror anthology through seasons 7, 8 and 9.

“I think one of the reasons that it is being adapted to so many different arenas is because it’s an avatar that we can project our own fears onto,” says Dave Alexander, editor-in-chief of Rue Morgue magazine.

“Slender Man has a blank white face. Human beings identify each other by visual cues in the face. When that’s gone it’s mysterious and disturbing and upsetting.”

Adam David, a PhD candidate in film studies at Western Sydney University whose work focuses on evolving horror mediums, says Slender Man’s arrival is right on cue. A new development in

technology is often bestowed with a spectral aura.

“We build mythologies around technology,” he says. At the dawn of photography, he notes, spiritualists would pass off double exposed photos that featured the shadow of a second photo as proof of a spirit world.

Foundational filmmakers Georges Méliès and the Lumiere Brothers used the new medium to make sheet-shrouded ghosts appear and skeletons dance in short films from the 1890s. “This is part of a long line of creating a supernatural aura around technology,” David says.

And while Beware the Slenderman convincingly argues there were underlying psychological conditions for why Morgan and Anissa believed in Slender Man, Brodsky confesses that she herself has struggled to distinguish fact from fantasy online. Never mind “fake news” — she finds herself reading paid content in her New Yorker newsletter as if it was a scurrilously fact-checked report.

“I’m talking about bona fide publications and media outlets that aren’t making it so easy for us to tell the difference,” she says.

“Is Slender Man all that different?

Especially when you are 11?”

The tragedy has doubled as macabre publicity for Slender Man’s entree into the mainstream. “It’s in the pop culture language, so half the work is done,” Alexander says.

“They don’t need to convince audiences of this new figure, this new boogeyman. Because he already exists.”” torstar news service

Monday, January 23, 2017 13

Careers You can do this Audio Engineer

Each day is a different song

WHY I LIKE MY JOB Daniel Horton, 40, audio engineer at the Eggplant Collective, Toronto.

At first, I wanted to be a musician or work in the field of recording music. In 2001, I went to Toronto’s Harris Institute, which specializes in music and arts (diplomas). I quickly learned music was only one component — there’s lots of opportunities in commercial and long-form work for audio engineers. So while my initial

path was music, I’ve branched out into doing commercial work.

I spend a lot of time doing sound effects or sound design, fixing music supplied by a composer, mixing tracks, recording voices or voiceovers and putting all the pieces together for our clients.

I like my job because I get to experience different challenges every day. Something is always new, and I’m not bogged down working on the same project for months on end.

THE BASICS: Audio engineer

$48,948 Median annual salary for an audio engineer. Those with advanced training and experience can expect to earn upwards of $75,000 per year.

+8%

Projected growth rate over the next eight years.

Data for this feature was provided by payscale.com, trade-schools.net, onetonline.org and berklee.edu.

HOW TO START There is no set standard to breaking into audio or sound engineering. Many jobs will require some form of post-secondary school, such as a trade program or college diploma, where you study the different technologies involved in sound recording and editing, as well as theory of audio production. There are a few specialized colleges, such as the Harris Institute or the Recording Arts Canada, which offer diplomas and certificates specifically in audio-related fields. With the ever-changing nature of digital and audio equipment, on-the-job training is common.

WHERE YOU CAN GO Audio and sound engineers can expect to find positions in most major metropolitan areas where there is a commercial, film or music industry. Toronto and Vancouver, with their heavy concentration of advertising agencies and film productions, are hotbeds for the practice.

NEXT CAREER STEP There are a number of different career paths for audio engineers, including live concerts, voiceover work, sound effect creation, pure sound editing (for films, TV shows and commercials) and, of course, music production.

No more cartoon clichés of nerds and sex bombs The California Institute of the Arts was created partly by Walt Disney’s desire to bring more top-flight animators into the profession. And it has during its 47 years, though for a long time almost all were men.

Now, nearly three-quarters of CalArts’ more than 250 animation students are women, and there’s a new goal: ensure that when they land jobs, they get to draw female characters reflective of the real world and not just the nerds, sex bombs, tomboys or ugly villains who proliferate now.

“Male villains can be any shape or size. But female villains are usually in their menopausal or postmenopausal phases.

They’re older, single, they’re angry,” said Erica Larsen-Dockray, who teaches a class on The Animated Woman for CalArts.

“Then you have the innocent princess, whose waist is so small that if she was actually alive, she wouldn’t be able to walk.”

To call attention to that, Cal­ Arts has played host the past two years to The Animated Woman Symposium on Gender Bias. This year it focused on the roles of Sidekicks, Nerd Girls, Tomboys and More.

During a recent raucous twohour symposium, nearly a dozen student researchers who spent months watching cartoons and reading comic books questioned why almost all female sidekicks look like nerds. Also why female heroes like Kim Possible are overthe-top beautiful. And why there are so few gay, lesbian and transgender characters.

“What are nerd-girl stereotypes? They have glasses, they’re shy, they’re awkward, they have some freckles going on,” said

Ajani Russell poses with her artwork Female Figures prior to the Animated Women symposium at California Institute of the Arts. Mark J. Terrill/the associated press

film-video student and artist Madison Stubbs as she flashed drawings of several, including two of the most popular: Velma from Scooby-Doo and Meg Griffin of Family Guy. “And we have Tootie from Fairly OddParents,” Stubbs said of the long-running Nickelodeon cartoon show’s pig-tailed, braceswearing, bespectacled sidekick.

“Basically, she’s just in the show to go, ‘Oh, Timmy. I want you.

Why do you ignore me?”’

There’s a reason for such drawings and scenarios, said Marge Dean, president of the industry group Women in Animation: Men still fill animation’s writing rooms and director’s chairs.

“Many, many, many women are going to animation schools.

At CalArts, it’s over 70 per cent.

But yet if you start looking at women in creative roles, the last number we have is only 22 per cent,” said Dean.

In an effort to boost those numbers, CalArts faculty invites studio representatives to campus

for events like portfolio days and maintains a close relationship with groups like Dean’s, which is pushing the studios to have a creative workforce of half women and half men by 2025.

CalArts alumni have directed nine of the 15 Oscar-winning animated feature films since that category was created in 2002.

Only two of those 15 films had female directors. Both of them, Brenda Chapman and Jennifer Lee, are CalArts graduates.

Dean believes the landscape will change as the popularity of animation continues to grow.

Three of last year’s top 10 box office films were animated.

To make real change, students entering the animated world must demand it, said Stacey Simmons of the production company Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

“The only way you’re going to change it is to keep doing it,” she said. “The industry itself has changed a lot, but it has not changed at the same rate the country has.” the associated press

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“If our children would’ve said it, we would have grounded him for six months”: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich on Donald Trump

Canada Ryan and Jones guide stacks its for Falcons into Super Bowl team worlds Figure skating

NFL playoffs

est-scoring offence keep playing like this, the AFC winner will sure have its hands full in the Lone Star State. The Falcons led 24-0 at halftime against the Packers (12-6), perhaps the league’s hottest team, and essentially put the game away on their second offensive snap Matt Ryan and Julio Jones of the second half, a play that teamed up for a dominant play- showed every one of Jones’ reoff performance, and the Atlanta markable skills.

He blazed down the middle Falcons ignored all those ghosts from the last half-century. of the field, shook off LaDarius Next up: Super Bowl 51.

Gunter’s attempt to grab him on Ryan threw for 392 yards a cut toward the sideline, hauled and four touchdowns in an- in the pass from Ryan, broke other MVP-worthy showing, Gunter’s diving attempt at while Jones tackle, and deshook off a toe NFC championship fiantly knocked injury to haul away Damarious Randall’s in nine catchwith a brutal es for 180 yards stiff-arm on and two scores, the way to a leading the Falcons to a 44-21 73-yard touchblowout of the down. storied Green Not bad, considering Bay Packers in the NFC chamhe took it easy pionship Sunmuch of the day. week because Atlanta (13-5) will face either of his sore left foot.

“I didn’t practise that much New England or Pittsburgh in the Feb. 5 title game in Houston. throughout the week,” Jones It will be only the second Super said, “but today I came out and Bowl appearance in the Falcons’ gave it all I had.”

51-year history, the first coming In the final game at the Geor18 years ago with a team known gia Dome, Ryan sparked more as the “Dirty Birds.” delirious chants of “MVP! MVP! They have never won an NFL MVP!” as he carved up an injurychampionship. plagued Packers secondary that If Ryan and the league’s high- had no way of stopping a team

Atlanta ends Green Bay’s eight-game winning streak

44 21

MLB

Royals’ Ventura dies in car crash Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura, whose electric arm and confident demeanour helped lead Kansas City to a long-awaited World Series championship in 2015, died in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic early Sunday. He was 25.

Highway patrol spokesman Jacobo Mateo said Ventura died on a highway leading to the town of Juan Adrian, about 40 miles northwest of Santo Domingo. Mateo did not say whether Ventura was driving.

Yordano Ventura Getty images

Also Sunday, former major league infielder Andy Marte died in a separate car accident in the Dominican Republic.

The Associated Press

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers attempts a pass as he is hauled down by Grady Jarrett of the Falcons in Atlanta on Sunday. Rob Carr/Getty images

that averaged nearly 34 points a game during the regular season.

For good measure, Ryan also ran for a touchdown.

“We played great,” he said.

“We did exactly what we’ve been doing all year and it feels really good.”

IN BRIEF Costa returns in Blues’ win Diego Costa returned to the Chelsea side after his ambiguous absence and marked his 100th appearance for the Premier League leaders on Sunday by scoring the first goal in a comfortable 2-0 victory over Hull.

The striker missed last weekend’s victory over Leicester, officially due to injury but with manager Antonio Conte not disputing accounts of a rift with the top scorer.

The Associated Press

Atlanta’s defence, an afterthought compared to the other side of the line, kept the Packers out of the end zone until the game was essentially locked up.

Rodgers finished 27 of 45 for 287 yards and three TDs, but he also threw an interception,

was sacked twice and faced a relentless Falcons rush.

The Associated Press

Go to metronews.ca for coverage of the AFC championship game on Sunday night.

NHL

Sens fail to hold off Jackets in OT loss Cam Atkinson’s second goal of the game at 1:09 of overtime gave the Columbus Blue Jackets a 7-6 win over the Ottawa Senators Sunday night.

Atkinson had a breakaway after a shot by Senators captain Erik Karlsson missed the Columbus net and went around the boards out to Atkinson, who was at centre ice.

Third-period goals by Lukas Sedlak and Matt Calvert erased a two-goal deficit for the Blue Jackets. Atkinson then scored

Canada’s team for the world figure championships boasts 17 world medals between them.

With the return of ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, along with Patrick Chan and pairs skaters Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, Canada will send one of its strongest teams ever to the world championships in Helsinki in March.

The team was named Sunday after the Canadian figure skating championships.

“It was a great week,” said Skate Canada’s high performance director Mike Slipchuk.

“When it came time to select the team, it was pretty clear. It was nice to see our defending champions skate the way they did.”

Chan, a three-time world champion, and Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., were named to the team in men’s singles.

The announcement came a day after Chan won his ninth national title.

Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., and Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., will compete in women’s singles.

Virtue and Moir, who are twotime world champions and sixtime medallists, plus double world medallists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., as well as Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont., will represent Canada in ice dance.

And two-time world champions Duhamel and Radford lead a trio of pairs teams that include Toronto’s Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch as well as Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Trois-Pistoles, Que. The Canadian Press

Sunday In Ottawa

7 6

Jackets

Senators

at 10:50 of the frame to give Columbus a 6-5 lead.

Kyle Turris tied the game at 6-6 less than two minutes.

Zack Smith and Mike Hoffman each scored twice for the Sens (25-15-5). The Canadian Press

Patrick Chan Getty images

Monday, January 23, 2017 15

YESTERDAY’S ANSWERS on page 12 make it tonight

Crossword Canada Across and Down

Sunny Shrimp Tacos photo: Maya Visnyei

Ceri Marsh & Laura Keogh

For Metro Canada These tacos are fresh and bright enough to bring the sun out on a winter day.

Ready in 40 minutes Prep time: 30 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes Serves 4 Ingredients • 1 lb peeled, deveined shrimp • 1 Tbsp olive oil • 3 cloves of garlic, minced • 1 tsp cumin • 1/2 tsp chili powder • 1/4 tsp salt • 8 tortillas • 3 Tbsp lime juice • 1/4 head of red cabbage • 2 Tbsp lime juice • 4 Tbsp sour cream • 2 Tbsp lime juice • A good pinch of salt • Sliced radishes, avocado

Directions 1. Peel and devein shrimp and rinse under cold water. In a shallow bowl, mix oil, garlic, cumin, chili, salt and toss in shrimp. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Wrap tortillas in damp paper towel, place in oven. Slice the cabbage and toss in a bowl with 3 Tbsp lime juice, olive oil and salt to taste.

In a small bowl, mix sour cream, 2 Tbsp lime juice and a pinch of salt to make a crema.

3. Heat skillet to high, add a little olive oil. Add half the shrimp. Cook until you see pink around the edges. Flip over and cook briefly until shrimp are pink and opaque.

Repeat with second batch.

4. Place everything on table and let people build their own tacos.

for more meal ideas, VISIT sweetpotatochronicles.com

Across 1. Biblical beau 5. Skin cream ingredient, __ butter 9. Legal garbs 14. Belonging to me 15. Paper __ (Pen brand) 16. Montreal ‘student’ 17. Prince __ (Alexander Borodin opera) 18. Surgery painpreventer 20. Driver’s shade from rays: 2 wds.

22. Pre-ninth inning in baseball 23. “The __ Who Loved Me” (1977) 24. Pensive person 26. 1984: “Strut” Scottish singer ...her initials-sharers 27. Travel by dog sled 29. Goose, in Latin 31. PC picture 33. Inactive 35. Tenet 39. Glorify 40. Electrical pioneer Nikola 42. The __ Mountains (Range in Russia) 43. Dermatologist’s device 45. “To Sir, with Love” (1967) star 46. Savings = __ egg 47. Sherwood’s Mr. Hood 49. Sassiness, in slang 51. Energy unit 54. Management Land, say 56. Peacock TV station

59. Lisa’s “Friends” character 61. Carmen’s aria in Georges Bizet’s opera 63. Accordion-like instrument 65. Court hearing 66. __ __ the other (Not both)

67. Slowly advance 68. Rupture 69. Sea swallows 70. CCR’s “Have You Ever __ the Rain” 71. Whirl in the water Down 1. Not quite right 2. Unearth: 2 wds.

3. Like an unknown benefactor 4. “Jeopardy!” creator Mr. Griffin 5. Chart-topper: 2 wds,.

6. Capital of Vietnam 7. Weather in Jim Carrey’s ‘Spotless Mind’

It’s all in The Stars Your daily horoscope by Francis Drake Aries March 21 - April 20 This is a good day to ask your boss for a favour. It will be easy for you to make him or her feel sympathetic to your cause.

Taurus April 21 - May 21 Because your imagination is heightened today, you will be delighted with unusual stories and meeting people from other cultures. You want to learn more.

Gemini May 22 - June 21 If you decide to share something today with someone, you will be sympathetic to his or her situation. (Make sure you respect your own needs.)

Cancer June 22 - July 23 In conversation with partners and close friends today, you will be caught up with idealistic values. You will want what’s best for the other person.

Libra Sept. 24 - Oct. 23 During a discussion with a family member, you will quickly see what it is like to be in his or her shoes. This is why you will be compassionate.

Leo July 24 - Aug. 23 Co-workers might ask for your advice or want to share a hardluck story with you. This is because people sense that you are sympathetic today.

Virgo Aug. 24 - Sept. 23 Because your imagination is heightened today, you will enjoy the creative efforts of others. You also will be creative in your own approach to something today.

WANTED

Scorpio Oct. 24 - Nov. 22 Don’t worry if you spend a lot of time daydreaming today. It’s just one of those days. It’s also easy for you to visualize things today.

Sagittarius Nov. 23 - Dec. 21 If shopping today, you will be tempted to buy luxurious items you might not be able to afford. Just remember that after the temptation wears off, you are stuck having to pay this bill.

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movie: 2 wds.

8. Bronze Roman money 9. Got the job back 10. Mr. Cassini (He outfitted President Kennedy’s wife) 11. “2 Broke Girls” actress Ms. Behrs, and namesakes

12. Web-sent party notice 13. Six, in Munich 19. Casual tops 21. Possessive pronoun 25. Sad-sounding ring 28. Beneath 30. Theatre in the __ 31. Chicago’s li’l state 32. Canuck motorists org.

34. Cold cuts counters, commonly 36. Like the Lady in American band Sugarloaf’s 1970 song 37. Pas’ wives 38. Elevation, for short 41. Germany’s famous highway 44. Cops and __ 48. Second __ War (1899 to 1902 conflict) 50. Ms. Thurman 51. Walt Disney World attraction in Florida 52. Winery river valley in France 53. One whose goose is cooked 55. Do the tango 57. Butter’s best friend 58. Tote 60. Business subj.

62. Whole, as in music 64. Poetic contraction

Conceptis Sudoku by Dave Green Every row, column and box contains 1-9

Capricorn Dec. 22 - Jan. 20 You feel truly sympathetic for others today. This is why you will go out of your way to help someone, or at least, listen to his or her story. Be wary of crocodile tears.

Aquarius Jan. 21 - Feb. 19 Today you will be inclined to put the wants and needs of others before your own, because you feel sympathetic.

Pisces Feb. 20 - March 20 A friend may ask for your help today, or you might ask a friend to help you. Either way, people are supportive of you today, and they hope you will be the same toward them.

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